NOVAKula: Durbin Apologized Because Richard DALEY Pulled His Strings

[UTUSN]

Who knows if old fart NOVAKula still gets sources, but here 'tis for what it's worth.

*******QUOTE*******

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0506/22/ip.01.html

HENRY: Bob Novak, what kind of problem was this for the Democratic leadership? It lingered for a week that Durbin wouldn't apologize -- a lot of criticism.

NOVAK: It was a big problem. It was a stupid thing for him to say. A lot of people use the ridiculous Nazi analogy in both parties. It's always very damaging to the person who says it. But he wouldn't apologize. He's a very stubborn, arrogant man. And he just couldn't -- you know, it's so silly, Ed, because he kept referring to these regimes as repressive regimes: the Nazis and Pol Pot and the Gulags -- they weren't repressive, they were genocidal. And he talked about -- comparing their investigative techniques to our investigative techniques. They didn't question anybody. They killed them. They killed the Jews. They didn't question them.

HENRY: Well, how about that?

There are legitimate questions about were there abuses.

(cross talk)

But there are legitimate questions about whether there have been abuses at Guantanamo. Does this undermine the Democratic argument about those abuses?

BEGALA: Yes and I think that's unwise. Democrats stepped in it on this. It was a huge mistake. For one thing: Republicans were leading the charge on Guantanamo, on criticizing the Bush administration's performance there. Mel Martinez, a Bush cabinet member, now a Senator from Florida, said, "We should close down Guantanamo." Now Lindsey Graham, a Republican -- a very conservative Republican Senator from South Carolina says we should have an independent inquiry.

The Democrats should have listened to the old Napoleonic edict: Never interrupt your opponent when he's destroying himself. They should have hung back and allowed the Replublicans to carry that criticism and instead, they looked for a minute -- I think Democrats ought never look like they care more about 500 Arabs trapped in Guantanamo and a lot more about 140,000 Americans trapped in Iraq. That's where the real problem is.

NOVAK: Let me say one thing: Durbin, very stubborn man. He wasn't going to apologize. He said, "it's the right-wingers and the talk shows and Rush Limbaugh who was attacking him. Do you know what made him apologize?

HENRY: No.

NOVAK: When the mayor of Chicago criticized him. Richard Daley has a son who's a private in special forces and the mayor was furious over this. He came out publicly and the Durbin staff telephoned the mayor's office. They were all upset. By the way, on the independent commissions, I thought we elected 435 members of Congress, a president and a vice president who named people -- are we going to have government by appointed commissions? Whenever there's a problem you say we can't deal with this. We have to have an appointive commission?

********UNQUOTE*******

[Lerkfish]

1. so...does the apology look like a position of strength?

no. didnt think so.

have we learned yet?

[Cassandra]

2. I didn't know you could be a private in Special Forces (Daley's son)...

I thought the minimum requirement to enter Special Forces is to be a sergeant.

[madrchsod]

3. fuck novak

i thought about this deal yesterday about daley and durbin. if i were daley i`d be pissed and i`m sure daley told durbin he was. durbin being a intelligent man decided just maybe he was wrong by doing the same thing the right does -lumping everyone as the enemy. i`m sure durbin and daley had a chat and patched things up without the histrics that some on the right would like it to be portrayed.
if you had a son or daughter in the service over there wouldn`t you be upset? much to do about nothing.

[ooglymoogly]

4. ask the men who have been tortured and the many that

have died in the american gulags. see if they think it was as bad as the nazis. novak is a stupid blowhard who imagines himself smart.

[KharmaTrain]

5. Minister Of Disinformation...

Politics is never as cut and dried as Novakula puts it...and of course he's gonna put his own personal spite in there since Durbin is on the Rove/GOOP radar to be attacked both politically and personally.

Richie did have some effect on Durbin, but to say he made Durbin back down is far from how things work. Richie's no liberal or progressive...very pro-military and shoots his mouth off on a regular basis. Most time it's directed at this regime...like when Richie couldn't get the same continued air cover for his downtown New York and Washington got. To "mini-boss", this has everything to do with money and clout...just like his old man.

Durbin and Daley have always had a good but never close relationship. But then Daley has the same with Denny Hastert. Daley's game is to get as much federal money in his/Chicago's pocket and when he sees that threatened, that's when he acts. Methinks he got a call from Denny to put the word to Durbin...which Daley did. In return, I wonder what Daley got from Hastert. Of course Novakula won't print that.

[MadHound]

6. Yay, the old Dem fixer fucks it up again.

I guess it wasn't enough for Daley to fuck up the Gore campaign in Florida, no, now he has to extract what little spine the Dems were growing. This man is a Democrat why? Seems to me like he's doing a better job helping the 'Pugs:eyes: